The Casino of Hammam-Lif, a neo-Moorish monument inaugurated in 1894, was for more than a century a key place in the city and thus participated in the golden age of the southern suburbs. Alternately hotel-casino, party hall then bar-restaurant, the building, which closed its doors since 2010, is preparing, once renovated in the rules of the art, to give us a new face turned this time towards culture and tourism.
It should be noted that as part of its policy of safeguarding and promoting cultural heritage, the municipality of Hammam-Lif has decided to grant concessions to the Casino, a protected historical monument. To this end, a call for tenders was launched this year, as part of a dynamic aimed at saving and restoring life to the remarkable built heritage jointly carried out by the Ministry of State Property and Land Affairs, the general authority for public-private partnerships, the National Heritage Institute, with the support of the Heritage 3,000 project implemented by Expertise France as part of the Tounes Wijhetouna program co-financed by the European Union.
The concession of the monument aims at the same time the restoration of the architectural integrity, the safeguard of the heritage authenticity as well as the conversion to new functionalities allowing the exploitation of the monument for cultural and tourist purposes. The minimum reference duration of the concession contract is set at 25 years.
To this end, a cooperation agreement between the Ministry of State Property and Land Affairs and the general body of public-private partnership (PPP) was concluded yesterday, with a view to launching the public-private partnership in tourist and cultural projects at the Casino of Hammam-Lif (southern suburb of Tunis).
Signed this agreement, the Minister of State Property and Land Affairs, Mohamed Rekik, the president of the authority, Atef Majdoub, the director general of the National Heritage Institute, Faouzi Mahfoudh, and the North Africa interregional coordinator of the “Expertise France” network, Stéphan Orivel.
Emphasis was placed, on this occasion, on the need to provide technical assistance to all ministerial departments, municipalities and public establishments with historic buildings and seeking to entrust their operation to the private sector for cultural activities. and tourist. Presiding over the signing ceremony in which European diplomats took part, the Head of Government, Najla Bouden, stressed the importance of strengthening public-private partnership in order to preserve Tunisia’s material heritage and give a boost to investment in tourism and cultural projects. She affirmed that Tunisia is full of historical monuments in decline and whose rehabilitation remains necessary in order to exploit them once more, like the Casino of Hammam-Lif.
For his part, the mayor of Hammam-Lif, Mohamed Ayari, spoke of the historical and symbolic value of the “Casino” for the inhabitants of the region, recalling that the municipality of Hammam-Lif launched a call for tenders relating the redevelopment and renovation of the Casino, a historic monument bordering the beach, with a view to using it as a cultural and tourist space.
In a statement to the media, the Minister of State Property and Land Affairs, Mohamed Rekik, indicated that his department is proud to join this PPP project with the aim of investing in the cultural and tourist fields, which constitute a plus in terms of heritage preservation and support for the economy.
The renovation of the Hammam-Lif Casino is a pilot project which the Ministry of Tourism is working to guarantee the success of as well as the success of 16 other projects in several historical sites in order to support tourism and culture in the country, said for his part the Minister of Tourism, Mohamed Moez Ben Hassine.